Spinnor
Gold Member
- 2,227
- 419
In Feynman's The Strange Theory of Light and Matter the simple technique for calculating quantum amplitudes for simple optical phenomenon by adding arrows is given. Could that same technique in principle be used to calculate the amplitude for a photon to arrive at the detector port of the LIGO interferometer? Because light gets stored in Fabry-Perot interferometers and also recycled there are an infinite number of possible paths to the detector and all paths need to be added?
With LIGO adjusted for a detector null can you just argue that for every path to the detector by the left arm there is by symmetry an identical path to the detector by the right arm with opposite phase, all paths must pair off and add to zero amplitude?
Thanks for any help.
With LIGO adjusted for a detector null can you just argue that for every path to the detector by the left arm there is by symmetry an identical path to the detector by the right arm with opposite phase, all paths must pair off and add to zero amplitude?
Thanks for any help.